Assam Day 5 - Seeking the dolphins, encountering the Osprey - the gigantic Brahmaputra

 Continued from here.

15th Jan 2020

On to Kaziranga, from Mangaldoi, today.  But first, we were to stop at the Brahmaputra and take in a river cruise as we searched for the Gangetic dolphins.

We were headed west, staying north of the Bramhaputra, a 3 hour journey.

We stayed on NH15 for the most part, the highway was in good shape.  As we reached Tezpur, there was more military presence and large, walled military compounds.  I learnt that Tezpur is one of the old cities of Assam, and there is a lot to see here, but we were not stopping.  The British made it into an army Headquarters for the region.  

Aparna wrote this in our trip report:

The place Tezpur was named for the rivulets of blood that flowed there. Legend has it that this was the place where the war between Banasura, who was King of the area, and Krishna took place. Banasura’s daughter, Usha, dreamt of Anirudh, the grandson of Krishna. Her friend Chitralekha drew his portrait and through her magical powers brought him to Usha. Banasura refused to give his consent for the marriage. That is when Krishna went to war. The war was actually fought between Shiva and Krishna as Banasura was a devotee of Shiva. And much blood was shed.  It is said that Brahma had to intervene to stop the fight. However Shiva gave in to the reason of Krishna and relented.  

We drove on to the river bank, close to the Kalia Bhamora bridge that spans the river over here.  

We walked across the fine river sand to the boats with colourful canopies.  It was close to 11am and the sun was blazing through, but the river was a vast expanse of a still dull, muddy colour.  To me, at that moment it felt like this large, silent, somewhat sullen, sleeping beast.  The currents were strong but one wouldn't guess it, due to the vastness of the river.

As we chose our boats, there was a sudden commotion, with everyone telling Shuba not to move.  She was startled but complied to the urgent orders.  On her ghamsa-covered head was what looked like a little colourful brooch! 

The butterfly brooch - Delias descombesi, the redspot Jezebel

Chinese fishing nets.  I read somewhere that the river supports some 222 species of fish! Tezpur is one of the important fishing centres on the river.  But the fish population is greatly depleted, due to human activity (of course, what else).

I think Pranjal mentioned Grey throated Sand Martins flitting along the river banks - but I did not see them (as usual).  

On returning, I did some reading on the sedimentation and turbidity of the river.  A 2017 NDTV article mentioned that the turbidity measure at Tezpur was 195 NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Unit), as against a permissive level of NTU5!  Aparna, who collects river waters, dipped a bottle in, and I was quite surprised - the water was clear, not turgid as I expected. The heavy sedimentation adversely affects fish life as also the Gangetic Dolphin, that we were out looking for.

That's us - adding colour to the river.  Picture by R Shantharam

The Brahmaputra river system is one of those huge carriers of sediment, and this sediment forms sand banks and islands - chapori - which can support a lot of bird life.  

You could also get small grassy islands in the middle - so vast is the river.

The Gangetic Dolphin (Platanista gangetica)

Several of our group had already gone on this boat ride on their last trip to Arunachal and they asked us to keep our eyes peeled.  We were warned that it would not be like some NatGeo movie where it would gently, gracefully and in slow motion arc out of the water and show itself to you. It will be in and out in the blink of an eye. A grey shadow in the water. And that's exactly what it was. 

We had a lot of these fleeting 'darshans' of the greyish brown snouts of these endemic, poor eyesight river Dolphins, which are highly ecologically stressed. They are on the IUCN red list

We were in two boats with a canopy that shaded us from the sun.  The boat engines created a hell of a racket, and he would cut the engines every now and then, and we would drift. Those were the best moments. The river was a dull grey brown and placid.  The whole scene was tinged in grey and brown.

They spend an average 107.3 seconds under water and 1.26 seconds above water. Once, the most commonly sighted aquatic mega-fauna in the Brahmaputra river system, it now faces extirpation from most of the major tributaries of the Brahmaputra and restricted to a few pockets in the mainstream.

Unregulated rise in human activities is causing serious degradation in dolphin habitats in the Brahmaputra. Acoustic vision being the primary mode of perceiving the environment for these animals, increasing noise levels and industrial activities cause major disruption in their perception of biologically critical sounds.

Scientists find conservation efforts of river dolphins in the Brahmaputra have largely ignored the aspect of Acoustic Habitat Degradation.

2019 North East Now

I didnt realise - dams on the river have isolated dolphin populations.  There are supposedly more than 50(!!) dams of different sizes on the Brahmaputra, fragmenting these populations, making them in-breed, disturbing the availability of their food.  So, not only on land are forests being isolated, but even in the water.  

The Osprey encounter

What I managed to photograph...

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) - have seen them before, but this was a thrilling experience to see this one so close, and then take off and glide lazily through the sky.  Pranjal had said that we would most probably see one of these fish eating raptors over the waters, and yes his prediction was right.  

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Photo by Elumalai - as it sat, an emperor of all it surveyed, or a masked bandit?  The Osprey is supposed to be the only raptor with all toes being equal in size.  interesting, did not know this.  Does that make a difference in how it perches?

Photo by Elumalai - All set to take off, possibly disturbed by our outboard motor.  Rounded talons and a reversible outer toe means that it can catch those slippery fish with two toes in front and two behind.  

Photo by Venkatesh, as it took to the air, showing us the "fingers" on its wing feathers, and its spread out short tail.

Photo by Venkatesh - the white breast and the golden brown upper wings - what a magnificent sight it was!

Photo by Venkatesh - we gawked at the wingspan - a good 4-5 feet, as it flapped them in slow succession  and moved away from us.

This photo by Suresh - of the brown upper parts and those four long finger-like feathers, with the fifth being a bit shorter.  The drooping hands are a characteristic flight posture of this piscetarean.

We chugged along back now under the bridge and what seems like the new Brahmaputra bridge coming up alongside.

Mountains of concrete, as Man looks to overcome natural "obstacles"?

Add caption

Do we need another?

Off the boat, and we found little "loo huts".  

A group picture and some tea and potato biscuits, before we set off for lunch and then Kaziranga.

Very tasty!  A new discovery.  Potato "biscuits".  They were so yummy, I brought a couple of packets back home.

Tree sparrows

A reminder of what was going on in the country.

We were coming across to the southern bank of the mighty river, and turning east, to Kaziranga.